Ok, I have a 2000 Blazer LT 4X4 and the past couple of days i have noticed that my truck wants to not start. I dont drive her much these days, But i do make it an effort to go out and start her everyday and let her run 10-15 minutes or so. When I go to start it, i notice the voltage down to about 9-10v and she has to crank about 8 times or so to get running. Once she runs, she runs just fine. It has a new battery as of this summer. And i had the alternator tested about a month or so ago and it passed all across the board. My question is why does my battery seem zapped after just sitting overnight? None of my lights are staying on and i dont have anything plugged into my aux power supply. The truck is all stock and there are no modifications to it. Any help would be appreciated! Thanks!

Nate

 

Check the battery cable connections to be sure they are tight and have no corrosion on them.

 

just went to check them, they are fine and nice and snug.

 

any one else....out of 22xxx members just one? lol

 

More then likely the problem is with the battery itself rather then somewhere in the charging or electrical system in general.

One possibility is that the battery may not be the proper size for the truck.
If the cranking amps are to low it would cause this type of problem especially in the winter time and would be most obvious in a truck that is not used often. Cold and inactivity are two things that drain a battery. If the battery is barely strong enough to start the truck under optimal conditions then in a truck that isn't used much and during the cold months you will see it getting harder and harder to start every time you try.

Another possibility is that even though the battery tests good it may in fact be going bad. More then once I have purchased a brand new battery and had it start to fail within a few months. It may have been defective from the start, probably having one or more of the cells not properly holding a charge.

Or your new battery may be older then you think it is. I once bought a "new" battery and started having similar issues as you are after a few months. After a while I pulled the battery and noticed that the manufacture date on the battery was 4 years before I bought it. Not every battery has a clearly readable manufacture date though so you won't always know just how long that battery has been siting on a shelf in the back of the parts store.

Either way you are probably going to need a new battery.
Go for a good name brand rather then the cheap parts store brands. Get an energizer if you can find one. In my personal experience they seem to hold up far longer then most. (I once had one of those last for 10 years before I finally needed to replace it.)
Also be sure to get a high enough CCA rating on your new battery. Find out what the recommended CCA's are for your truck and then get a stronger one then that. (don't let the parts store just guess on this, they are often wrong here)

The reason for that being is that the recommended CCA listed is most often the minimum required under ideal circumstances. Ideal circumstances being a truck that is used often and started and stored at a moderate temperature. Also a higher CCA rated battery will be under less strain during starting and will last longer because of it.

Good luck.

 

right on.....